Tutorial: How to enable participation in a contest via Instagram

All photo, video and writing-based contests offer the chance to enable the participation of users viaInstagram. Users can then take part in the contest by publishing a post with the hashtag that has been pre-defined by the administrator in the administration panel. This post will be automatically imported as a new participation in the contest. The option to participate via Instagram will be open to all users who have an active Instagram account.

In this tutorial we explain step by step how to enable user participation via Instagram.

In order to enable the Instagram Integration, you should follow the steps below:

1. Go to the administration page of the promotion and click on “Integrations”:

2. Here you’ll find all the platforms with which you can integrate your promotion. Click on "Instagram":

2. Instagram integration settings

Click on the Instagram image to go to the next screen. Then you should "Enable" this integration in order to activate it. Settings options will then appear.

If it is the first time you connect your Instagram account with Easypromos, the app will request you to accept permissions to get your Instagram information:

Once accepted, the platform will connect to your Instagram account:

There, you will find the setting options of Instagram integration:

1. Hashtag/s. Add the hashtag that you’ll use and communicate so that Twitter users can submit their photos, videos and comments. You’ll be able to insert a maximum of 3 hashtags. In case of inserting more than 1 hashtag, the system will import any tweet that contains at least 1 of the 3 hashtags. That is: users will be able to use any of the 3 hashtags but they’ll need to use at least one of them.

Use several hashtags to: consider all possible variations of a word or even spelling mistakes and typos made by users when typing the hashtag. Some examples are: #ContestDesign and #ContestDesing or #GrammyContest and #GrammmyContest.

Don’t use several hashtags to: require users to use two hashtags to enter. In order to do so use the keywords instead as we explain you below.

Important: Don’t include the # symbol and make sure you don’t leave any blank spaces.

2. Advanced filter by Keywords. The user will be required to include at least one of the keywords in order for the tweet to import. Keywords allow to set up an additional filter to the hashtag. Leave the field empty if you don’t require an additional filter.

Important: If you set up several keywords, these are excluding. Users will only need to use one of them.

You can insert any word as a keyword, and this includes a @mention to the brand or #hashtags. This will allow you to create contests where users should post a tweet with a mandatory #hashtag and a mandatory @mention to the brand, or a first mandatory #hashtag (set up in the ‘Hashtag’ field), and a second mandatory #hashtag (set up in the ‘Keywords’ field).

4. Excluded users. Fill in this field with Instagram users whose content you don’t want to import. For example, it’s a good idea to add the name of the Instagram user who is organizing the contest. If there are any users making inappropriate use of the hashtag you can limit their participation by including them in this field.

5. Only one entry per user. Check this option if you wish to allow a single participation per Instagram user.

Important note: Even that the user tags an old picture/viceo with the hashtag of the contest, Instagram will not publish it as one of the latest pictures/videos that have used this specific hashtag, as they specify in their technical documentation. Therefore, as a recommendation we suggest you to encourage participants to create and publish new pictures/videos instead of reusing old ones.

3. Important considerations

When will the system start importing hashtags? The system will start importing Instagram posts from the ‘Start of Registration date’ set up on the application. Therefore, you should check this date before activating the promotion in order to make sure that the system will import the tweets published on Instagram according to the dates you wish.

Can I import old hashtags? The system starts importing from the ‘Start of registration date’ set up on the promotion, and once the system has already imported one Instagram post, the system will never recover older posts that the last post imported. If you would like to add an older post, you can include them manually by following these instructions. If you add a second hashtag in the middle of a contest that has already started, posts already published will not be imported, but the system will only import new posts.

How to set up the promotion in case of publishing a gallery will all imported posts.The Instagram Integration allows you to decide what type of content you wish to import to the gallery depending on the type of contest. In particular, the system can import posts with photos and posts with videos. Below we show a table containing the combinations that you must bear in mind depending on the type of contest:

Editing form – Contest information

Instagram integration

Photo and video contest

Select “graphic material” and then the “Images or videos” option

Select “all formats”

Photo contest

Select “graphic material” and then “images only”

Select “photos only”

Video contest

Select “graphic material” and then “only videos”

Select “only videos”

4. Practical Examples of use

When the Instagram Integration is enabled, the system will search all posts that contain the hashtag or hashtags se up in the Integration. However, these posts will finally be imported to the promotion or not depending on the settings of the Integration itself. In particular, these are the conditions that will determine if the posts are imported to the application:

The Hashtag set up. In case of setting up several hashtags, the tweet must contain at least 1 of them.

The Keyword set up. In case of setting up several keywords, the tweet must contain at least 1 of them.

We present you below an example of an Instagram Integration to illustrate these import conditions. In particular, the Integration has been set up with 1 main Hashtag and 3 hashtags as Keywords:

Based on this settings, the system will import Instagram posts like the ones below:

But it will not import the following Instagram posts, as they don’t include any of the keywords (first post) nor the main hashtag at all (second post):

5. Practical Ideas to set up several hashtags and keywords

The additional filter provided by the ‘Keywords’ field allows you to set up advanced options for your contests and have a bigger control about requirements that users will have to follow in order to enter. In this way, users will always be required to use the main hashtag, but you can create new mechanics by combining the hashtag with the use of keywords. We give you some ideas:

Ask users to @mention your brand or company on the Instagram post. This can become an excellent opportunity to increase visibility and exposure for your brand.

Co-branding and sponsoring. Are you organizing a contest with another company? Do you have a special sponsor for your event? Take advantage of the ‘Keywords’ filter to ask users to @mention your partner’s brand when posting with the hashtag.

Category-based contest. Do you want to create a category-based photo competition? Set up the main hashtag for the contest, as well as several hashtags, one for each category. The main hashtag must be unique for your competition. Categories can be generic words, such as: Nature, Gastronomy, etc. This way, in order for the Instagram post to be imported, it must include the main hashtag and at least one of the categories.

3 different prizes. Do you have 2 or more prizes to give away? Set up a keyword for each prize and let user post with the main hashtag plus the keyword of the prize they wish to opt for.

Quick survey on Instagram. Do you want to know the opinion of your followers about your brand or services? Users will need to indicate their preferences and opinions by using a specific keyword. All posts will be imported and from the participants’ list you’ll be able to check their answers in detail for a later analysis.